


Earth-32’s Finest

by kentluthor (doomrichards)



Category: Superman (Comics), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Apex Lex being Peak Asshole, Bathtub Sex, Earth-32 - Freeform, Established Relationship, Hospitalization, Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain, M/M, Married Super-Martian/Batman, Roleplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:55:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23709517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doomrichards/pseuds/kentluthor
Summary: Earth-32 Clex as seen in Lex Luthor: Year of the Villain. A bit of courtship, bedroom, and post-battle.
Relationships: Clark Kent/Lex Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	1. Crowned

It was a fine spring evening on Mars, the many multicolored flowers were in bloom in the magnificent public garden.

Kal-El, the Super-Martian, was seated on a bench in a more private alcove of the garden. This portion of the garden had a variety of maintained terran flowers. There were upright sword lilies known as gladiola, the beautiful blues of hyacinths, and the lush red of the dahlias. He had adjusted the atmosphere’s oxygen levels in the area to approximate that of Earth’s. He wanted his dear guest to be more comfortable.

The man was breathing in the various subtle scents as he arrived between two upright trees with delicate golden leaves that stood at the entrance. The tree’s canopy shadows were dappled as light filtered through and fell on Lex Luthor, the Batman of Earth. The man was Kal-El’s partner in work and his significant other in love. Kal thought partner was a term that suited the latter as well.

They had enjoyed a good dinner earlier that evening. It had been simple Martian and human cuisine fusions.

Kal could see himself reflected in Lex’s sunglasses as his partner approached.

“Hello, Lex. Thank you for joining me.” The Martian got up from his seat to walk to his guest. He had his hands behind his back.

“Kal, you know I love any excuse to leave the bustle of the city for even a while.” Lex was dressed in a simple but stylish black suit and the cut of the white shirt worked with it well.

Lex was well trained in martial arts and yet he trusted Kal, so he did not tense when the Martian moved his hands from behind his back.

Kal held out the garland of flowers he had knitted in his hand. “The flowers are blossoming again and I just wanted to enjoy the site with you.” Kal gently placed the crown on Lex’s head.

Lex adjusted the flower crown Kal had placed on his shiny head. “So, this was the gift you wanted to give me? Martian lilies, and of this variety too… I’m touched.” Lex caressed his partner’s viridescent cheek.

“Well...not exactly.” The Martian got down to one knee and pulled out a transparent box that held a ring inscribed with Kryptonian symbols. “Lex Luthor, my heart’s strength. Will you marry me?”

Lex stared back, his eyes unreadable with the sunglasses on. The flowers on his head fluttered softly in the breeze.

“Kal, you who are the Red Son. Turn your eyes to the infrared.” Lex said with fondness.

Kal-El stared at those sunglasses which reflected him back and adjusted his vision.

The written message had been split on the two lenses but it was clear.  _ Yes Kal. _

Kal blinked as Lex finally took the sunglasses off to look at him with his green eyes. 

“Yes. That’s my answer for you, Kal.” Lex slipped his sunglasses into a pocket before reaching out with his hands.

A smile spread across the Martian’s handsome features. Kal lifted Lex in his arms and held him.

“I was thinking about your gift... the ring around my head.” Kal wore the golden headband on his head, the centerpiece of it inscribed with the symbol of Rao that resembled a beating heart. It was a symbol of how much Lex loved him, how much Lex meant to him.

Lex touched his forehead to Kal’s and gave a little smile back.

Kal set Lex down again. He was always cautious about his own strength, but it simply felt easier around Lex.

“I thought to get you a ring as well.” Kal plucked the ring from its transparent casing and slipped it onto Lex’s left hand ring finger.

“And these flowers?” Lex brushed at a petal by his ear.

“I wanted to give you a crown, too. Since you gave me one. These flowers combined have a certain meaning you know.” Kal brushed his fiancée’s cheek.

“Oh, I was aware. You are very precise in your Martian flower language, Kal.” Lex had temporarily taken off his flower crown to turn it in his hands to admire the craftsmanship. The pink, green, and gold of the stems were delicately entwined and the buds upon the circlet were to Lex’s particular tastes in color while accented with Kal’s favorites.

“And how did you know about my proposal?” Kal mimicked putting on sunglasses as Lex put back on the flower crown. He knew that Lex had the eye bags from too many late nights and he hid them behind sunglasses often, but he wanted to hear the answer too.

Lex placed his two hands on Kal’s own. The ring upon one of those hands shone. “I didn’t. But I’m always prepared.”

Kal smiled fondly at that particular habit as he pulled Lex closer.


	2. Played

“Master Luthor, do you need me to draw you a bath, sir?” The robot butler known as Fred asked his master.

“Yes, Fred. I’m in need of one.” Lex was wiping at the sweat at his brow. He had come back from doing calibrations on an important project and was now home. His husband, the Martian-Kryptonian known as Kal, was not yet home.

“How are the calibrations of those machines going? Your fine tuning is remarkable, sir.” Fred gave a bow and then a curl of his hand digits after. It was hard to tell but beneath the artificial skin were quite articulated joint systems. Fred was proud that Lex's skill in robotics and business acumen was what enabled him to be CEO as well as get his hands down to the details.

“It goes well. It’s a coveted technology, Fred. So many people want access to it. It has to be in the best condition to help with such daunting feats.” Lex reached into a hidden compartment on his suit for the keys to his Batcruiser, Bat-helicopter, Batmobile and whatever else.

“Well, humans do tend to covet, sir.” Fred’s fingers were gloveless as they brushed against Lex’s hand as he handed the batkeys over.

Fred helped Lex unclasp the watch on his wrist, the watch face had Kal and Lex’s houses symbols imposed on each other, a Bat symbol on top of the Kryptonian house crest. If there was an emergency, Lex would still hear that buzzing alarm from nearby.

“And machines don’t covet?” Lex said after he had relinquished the items.

“Maybe for the latest upgrade. _Fred could use an expanded dictation book, lord!_ ” Fred had finished that last sentence in Kryptonese with little tonal variation.

 _“Perhaps, but machine translation can only go so far…_ ” Lex replied with an American Midwesterner accent to his Kryptonese. “There’s hardly a better Kryptonese conversation partner than a living one. But enough of that, there is work yet to be done tomorrow.” There was still fondness in Lex’s voice as he addressed his errant robot butler.

Fred hovered over to a table with a body that turned to a serpentine curve at the hip and placed the items into a decorative bowl with a clatter.

Lex had activated the sequence on his suit to be removed when Fred placed a hand on his shoulder and then lower to Lex’s waist as the butler took that folded and pleated uniform top off his body.

Lex worked out a sore muscle in his neck as he stood naked from the waist up while reading over some messages on a small handheld console.

Mr. Luthor spoke up after clearing a dozen messages. “Well, Fred? The bath?”

There was a clatter as metal hips bumped into the table. “Oh yes, sir! Right away.”

Lex heard the hover of that butler as he turned a corner to the bathroom. The sound of running water followed shortly after.

* * *

As Lex entered the bathroom completely naked, Fred wrapped the little towel at his arm around Lex’s waist.

Lex easily discarded it as he got into the full tub.

“Is everything satisfactory, sir?” Fred said with an air of practice as he leaned closer to where Lex laid in the tub.

“I.. yes the temperature is soothing... it’s just right. Thank you Ka—Fred.” Lex leaned back deeper in the tub as he glanced at the robot butler’s dark hair with the single curl over the forehead. It was a friendly, clean-shaven face.

“Is there any more ways I can... sooth you... Master?” Fred gave a gentle splash at the water in the tub. The robot was fully waterproof by design.

“There is. You can... stay. Incase I...require you further.” Lex had folded his arms under the water.

“Perhaps I can help by joining you in the bath vessel. I can help you remove dirt from your body.” Fred had begun to unknot the black tie at his neck. “Sir.” The butler added the address as an afterthought.

“Ah... Fred perhaps not. Kal can help me with that—” Lex had sunk deeper into the tub now.

“I can’t do this, Lex.” Fred’s peachy face was flushed and he was now turning green.

“Neither can I.” Lex’s own face was steamed and very pink as he surfaced from the water. “Well Kal, we can jot that down as a failed experiment.”

“Yes, we’ll write that down later...” Kal, who had discarded his role in his and his husband’s expanded bedroom activities, shucked off his butler’s attire. All there was now was his green skin and hair at his chest, nether regions, and on his arms and legs.

Kal got in the tub with him. Lex smiled even as he knew this was going to flood their floor.

“You know, that was a dish towel, Kal.”

“A what—”

“The flimsy little thing you put around my waist.”

“Oh well... _Fred_ shouldn’t be seeing those bits!”

“He doesn’t, Kal.”

“How would I know, _Alexander_ ? You make those robots so _handsome._ ” Kal said in a feigned scandalized voice.

“Not as hot as you, handsome.” Lex leaned in to kiss Kal. The brush of that beard was unparalleled.

Kal was caressing Lex’s face as well as scratching behind his ear and then had both hands beneath his armpits as he kneaded. Oh, so Kal was still set on helping him clean.

“I need your help elsewhere, Kal.” Lex hooked his legs around Kal’s waist and gently rubbed against him underwater.

Those scarlet eyes of Kal’s blinked at him then down at where their hips were bumping.

Kal turned his eyes to a bottle nearby and pumped a few dollops into his hand. He held onto it as his hand came back beneath the water toward Lex’s cute butt.

The Martian probed Lex with one finger, then another. It was better to make sure Lex was prepared. Lex meanwhile was working on Kal's green rod. Lex was a man who learned quickly, even with the slightly different quirks in alien anatomy. Lex had been ready even if Kal greatly differed from him down there. Kal had said he wasn’t a kraken.

Now, Kal was gently telepathically sending some more suggestive images and trailing tendrils of thought to his lover. Lex thought back a woven net made of kelp to catch his Martian mer-man. Kal’s twitch of laughter at the imagery sent larger splashes of water off the tub’s rim. Well, Fred will have to deal with that later.

Lex was having trouble finding a comfortable position to lie in the tub. Kal lifted Lex up by his hips after a few splashes.

Lex was set down gently upon Kal’s upright dick now. The slickness that Kal had primed him with helped as the alien dick entered him.

Kal was doing most of the work of lifting Lex up and down on his probing stick. Kal had said it was a very finely tuned instrument. Lex accepted the deep examination and music making.

The married Mr. Luthor’s moaning soon joined the soft splashes of the water.

Kal was rolling his hips as steadily as tides hit the ocean shores. Lex worshipped the moon as well as Mars.

“Kal...” Lex’s breathless voice was so different when addressing his lover and not a helper.

“Yes, Lex?” Kal brushed his thumbs against the skin that he had gripped at the man’s hips.

“Give me satisfaction. Please.” It came out as a plea rather than a command from Lex’s lips.

“Of course, my husband.” Mr. El said with just a hint of mischievousness.

When it came to human and Martian-Kryptonian anatomy, they were compatible in a few respects, with an important one included.

* * *

“Lex... What exactly did you have in mind while designing Fred?” Kal was poking at the cuffs of his discarded shirt sleeves. He wrapped that red cape around Lex’s dry and naked form. The symbol at the back was at least his very own and Lex looked rather handsome with it wrapped around his form.

“Oh... nothing. Just something practical with a flare of style.” Lex said with innocence.

“And looking exactly like me but clean shaven and with a human flesh tone?” Kal pulled the cape around Lex and drew him close.

“If they were bearded and green, I would be _more distracted_.” Lex pressed closer to his nonmetal husband and wrapped the cape around them both.

“Let me do the distracting...” Kal picked up Lex in a bridal carry with his great strength.

“Oh...” Lex wrapped his arms around Kal and nuzzled a cheek to that beard and soft, moist skin. The cape was loosely at his hips but could fall off.

“So, am I an adequate Fred? Five stars?” Kal said as he carried Lex over to their bedroom.

“All the red stars in the galaxy do not come close to your rating, Kal.” Lex said as they crossed the threshold.

“I shouldn’t have taught you sweet words, mister! Using them against me like that...” Kal said as he gently dropped Lex into their bed.

“Well, you know I’m a fast learner.” Lex was pushing away the cloth still on his body.

Kal hummed as he threw the butler’s cape off his husband and laid on top of him.


	3. Doomed

Lex was already pushing his Batcruiser to its very limits. He needed to fly far and fast.

That cruel enemy of himself had laid the trap. Even Kal’s skin like steel had been pierced by that abomination of a monster.

_Don’t be a fool. Waste this moment on me, and your Superman will fall._

Lex had asked that specter in the mirror why. And asked again as that screen had filled up with Kal being punched to the ground. What had Luthor meant by _your Superman_? Kal was his Martian.

_To see you like this. To show you how weak you become in his shadow._

That partially Martian Luthor from whichever forsaken Earth in the Multiverse had pushed against his mind’s defenses with artificial vibrations. That had been the source of the headaches that had suddenly plagued the Batman. Lex’s partner is a Martian, he was well acquainted with telepathy. That Luthor was wrong. Kal was not his weakness.

Entering a mind leaves one’s mind open, and he saw enough in Luthor's mind to see he was new at being an evil Martian. The Luthor’s shape-shifting had been clumsier than the brute force telepathy. Lex needed to reach his good Martian.

_There is no other path. There is only Luthor._

No, there was also the House of El. Two Els, Kal had said so on their wedding night. Luthor-El. Lex-El. Kal Luthor.

_You’re fool enough to believe there is still victory to be had?_

That Luthor had pushed against his mind. Perhaps he’d been susceptible because in a way that mind was also his own. The foreign thoughts flashed through his mind again as he sped past everything in a blur.

The one that Lex had called Superman— not Super-Martian but still an alien nonetheless… a Kryptonian. Kal-El’s own heritage had been intertwined with Martian and Kryptonian. There was blinding red tinted light and spilled red blood. There was also his hand—that Lex’s hand on that Kal’s throat. A ghastly green stone was set into a ring on his finger. That had to be a radiated fragment of the lost Krypton home-world. That had to hurt. Painfully. As much as fire to a Martian’s green skin.

Lex gripped the controls tighter. Hang on, Kal. Please wait for me. Stay alive. Please.

_Your Doom is assured._

Lex had called that man’s bluff. If that assured destruction were true, that Luthor wouldn’t have bothered to distract or divert him earlier.

Lex saw and felt the shock of that spike-stoned juggernaut stabbing Superman right in his heart and the blood that flowed from the wound. A woman was weeping over the man’s body, and there was a wedding ring upon her finger. He could feel the Lex Luthor who watched behind the screen feel a fleeting joy and anger at being robbed of the fatal strike.

There was nothing but emptiness and suppressed ache as that shadow of a man held the widow in his arms and hugged her during Kal—Superman’s funeral. _I miss him too._ Lex felt his heart burn at the memory that was not his own. It had... it had been the truth.

Again Lex’s mind defenses were up. He had trained his body and his mind after all. There was no mistaking the hateful memories for his own. It had been as if he were watching this all happen on a screen.

Lex thought of seeing the hulking creature send a spiked fist toward Kal that he’d seen on the screen hijacked by that intruder Luthor. He had brought a child with him to witness that bloodied battle for Zod’s sake. Lex had managed to pinch a nerve on the shoulder to knock out that version of himself that could not have been older than twelve.

Lex fought back despair at remembering the heated eye blast that had struck Kal and sent him in a splash of debris. There was a shock as one more memory pushed through. Superman alive again. Revived as if the world needed him, demanded him, adored him, _loved_ him. It was Luthor’s nightmare.

It had been Lex’s past, when he had been alone. He had not trusted the Martian at first. No one could be as golden as the sun. And yet, the sun burned as it circled the Earth and Kal constantly put others before himself. Fate had entwined them and Lex had felt that warmth. His lover was sunlight. That man, if he was still indeed a man, was poison.

Lex had called that alternate Luthor’s bluff with _Congratulations Lex, you’re your own worst enemy._ It went both ways.

Lex glanced at the course he was taking on his heads up display. Had that Luthor feared hope? Feared belief in anything but himself? _You were like that, once._ His mind supplied. Lex pushed against that thought, there was only the present and he needed the future.

* * *

Lex Luthor of Earth-32, the one also known as Batman set down immediately upon the city of Metropolis. He searched for Kal-El the Super-Martian.

The Bat-Lantern, Bruce Wayne had been busy off-planet. But there were some Justice Titans members here to assist him.

“Lex…” The Wonderhawk, Diana Prince greeted him. The immediate city area was empty due to evacuation efforts, so she addressed him by his civilian name. She knew that he took over Wayne Enterprises when Bruce had gone off to Oa, home planet of the Green Lanterns.

“Diana, where is Kal? The creature?“ Lex tried to keep his spine straight.

“We tried to subdue the foul beast, but it disappeared…” The Black Arrow, Dinah Laurel Lance shook her hooded head and blonde curls.

There was a great big hole in the earth at ground zero and no sign of the creature. It had come from nowhere and left the same without a trace save for the havoc that had been caused.

Lex felt for the fragile, fading mind. They had practiced the mind linking together, should they need it.

“Kal...” Lex followed a path of dark blood. He pushed against the rubble. Wonderhawk flew next to him and carefully set aside the stone as her wings fluttered from the effort.

There, beneath the fragment of the Daily Star building was a form familiar to him. By the bottled city. _Kal._

There were green stones embedded into the ground where he laid. Kal was hurt. Badly. Lex felt for and held onto the beat of Kal’s heart-pulse as his husband telepathically reached out to him. _Lex._

Lex rarely saw anything that hurt Kal. God knows the man’s heart was sensitive, but his body? His willpower? It rivaled that of the indomitable Green Lanterns.

Kal’s thoughts were fading in and out. Lex thought back a few Martian words for _peace/silence_ and _ease/safety_. Lex knew the Martian language had multiple nuanced meanings contained within a single word. That had to be enough, they would speak more later. There needed to be a later.

Lex met with S.T.A.R. Labs immediately. He’d have to operate himself.

His father had been a scientist and surgeon before a high profile but failed surgery and the man had gone to drink. Lionel was a husk of the man he’d been and Lex had vowed never to become that shell.

The slivers of green kryptonite were riddled everywhere on Kal’s body, sapping the Martian’s strength. The Kryptonian’s heritage was used against him.

Each tink of the removed fragments placed in the lead dish pieced together what hope Lex dared to feel. But he had to feel resolve as well.

The stents Lex had to put in caused his heart to race. It was temporary. It was needed. Kal’s strong heart needed to continue beating.

* * *

It had been an 18 hour surgery. The yellow sun lamps Lex had set up had heated him and burned him even with the protective suit and layers of lotion, but a little tan was a fine price to pay. His younger sister, Lena Luthor had led the shift. Her hands were more practiced and her skill focused on that rather than detective work and running around as a bat, she had said. She also said she was not going to let her brother-in-law die or see her brother’s heart broken. Lena was not going to like hearing Lex say he owed her, but he did.

Dubbliex had been beside them to assist in the surgery and keep Kal-El together telepathically. He informed them master Kon-El had been in Hawaii, on a retreat with no technology to train his discipline and ‘catch some waves’ as the young man had said. The D.N.Alien was a powerful telepath as well, but he could tell Lex’s present mental state just fine.

Kon-El still had his own Super-Martian-Bat watch that he kept on his person.

“Kon.” Lex greeted his son. Kon was an honored name of the House of El. Kal’s Martian-Kryptonian D.N.A. combined with Lex’s human D.N.A. had resulted in this miracle. He was so proud to have the son of the Red Son.

“Dad, are you alright? How’s Dad, by the way? I’m like, learning to meditate and stuff here. It’s helping loads with my telepathy-kenesis stuff.” Kon was around that Kid Aquaflash often, he was beginning to speak a little quickly and excitedly. Still, Bart was a good friend to have near water and to run laps with.

Lex sighed. Perhaps technology was not the best way to communicate. “We’re… fine now, Kon. But please fly back soon. And yes, you are allowed to _fly_ back that way, young man. There was a sudden skirmish in the city but we managed to evacuate. Do not be alarmed. Aunt Kara will explain.”

There was a suddenly speedy voice that crackled over the telecommunications. “Hey mister Lex Luthor, sir! We’re doing great out here but Kon got mad at me for taking the last Hawaiian pizza slice and can you believe that? I thought he didn’t even like pineapple on pizza but he said he was picking at the ham so anyway I said—”

“Hey now, look! There’s a plane in the sky!” That was Kon’s voice.

“Where?” Bart with a single word.

“Nowhere cos I gotta super fly soon, Bart!”

“Oh, you gotta go?”

Lex addressed the young lad. “It’s a bit of a family emergency, Bart.”

“Oh, see ya then! I’m totally going to spend my time getting better at beach volleyball. The Aquaflashes will kick your Super-Martian butts in the summer!”

“Pfft, sure! We’ll see about that! Anyway, I’ll get my bags packed. Even if we’re going to the Phantom Zone or whatever?” Kon said thoughtfully.

“Nothing that dire.” Lex was not really lying, but he wanted to minimize any anxiety.

“Uhhh… Sure, sure pops! See ya in Metropolis soon. I bet they miss their Kid!” Kon-El was used to Justice Titans emergency business, he was a Young Titans too after all.

“I miss you too, son. See you soon.” Lex was fondly exasperated, a feeling familiar to parents. Kon only used ‘pops’ when he was feeling playful. That was good. He didn’t want him to be worried. They would get through this.

Bruce Wayne, the Bat-Lantern had sent a hologram to Lex, briefly connected by Wayne Industries tech.

“Lex. You’ve done much for Gotham, I’m sorry I was not able to be at Metropolis.” Bruce kept his tone business-like. Lex knew him long enough to tell that was a shield.

“And you’ve done much for the Earth’s Sector, Bruce. You do good work.” Lex briefly looked at the man’s black and green garb. He could see the Lantern Ring charging with the battery in the background. It looked like it had drained earlier. “Thank you for that xeno-medical division of R & D we had created with the LexCorp-WayneEnterprises collaboration.” Lex wanted to remind Bruce that he was a good man. That they both were. Or tried to be.

There was a brief flickering smile on the hologram as the Bat-Lantern said goodbye.

* * *

Lex was finally able to enter the recovery room where Kal was in stable condition. He wanted to call out to his husband.

There was a lingering fragment that stabbed at him. That’s what he got for pushing back against that corrupted Martian. There was a name, a terran one. _Clark Kent._ That was Kal’s name when they had undercover missions on Earth. This Clark meant a boy wearing glasses yelling his name _Lex_ in a quiet library to ask to hang out. That same boy was beside another him looking through a telescope and gazing at stars out on the roof of a house located where light pollution couldn’t touch.

_I’m never going to fit in here, am I?_

_In Smallville? Sure if you think—_

_No. Here._

_What, Earth?_

Lex could hear that Clark’s pained silence even as that Lex gazed out at the stars and didn’t answer.

_I’m sorry. I thought you were joking._

How like Clark to apologize.

_Nevermind. You wouldn’t understand, anyway._

That was that Lex’s teenage dismissal and assumption no one else on Earth understood him. But Clark—But Kal did understand. He does understand.

Kal had understood even as a young Martian. Young Lex hadn’t known at the time when he still had his carrot top head and had communicated with that ‘specimen’ contained in that tube in the lab where Lionel Luthor was contracted to work. Lex had gained the Martian’s trust like the adults and his own father had asked him to do. Lex had found a way to communicate to that young Martian telepathically and they had many made up adventures in their minds. Saving the world and what not. It was what they did now as adults. It was now possible because Lex had managed to rig the machine into freeing Kal rather than destroying him.

That memory had been taken from him by the organization, and he had only left Kal a false name: Ender. Kal managed to find him many years later, and Lex held close that restored memory. He summoned it now that Luthor’s onslaught had hit him. Somehow, the loneliness between the memories felt the same. But Lex was not Ender anymore, or that Luthor. And Kal was his Kal.

Kal.

Lena was right outside the room, her power standing wheelchair braced her upright as she greeted her brother, the husband of the patient in the room. “Oh Lex, you got washed up a bit. Well, that’s good. You look less like something Streaky would drag in.”

Lex’s mouth quirked. A little sibling nudge was what he needed.

Lena continued on, serious now and to the point now. They really were siblings. “He’s stable and ready for visitors. The monitors have his Kryptonian physiology readings all steady.”

Lena had fought so hard against discrimination during med school, and Lex had supported her every step of the way. She had wanted to recover the legacy of her father even after the car accident. In the end it was her own legacy that shone for the Luthor family.

“Thank you, Lena.” Lex said, with sincerity.

“Don’t think anything of it, Lex.” Lena suddenly pointed at him with her left hand that had a diamond ring on it. “And don’t you dare show up with a ‘little’ something for me and Kara’s upcoming anniversary. I _swear_ on the Luthor name if you do…”

Lex raised both his hands up.

“Go. I’ll handle the paperwork.” Dr. Lena Luthor steadily lowered her power chair and moved to roll down the hall.

Lex took a deep breath as he entered the room.

Kal was lying with his eyes closed on the bed and hooked up to a few reliable pieces of medical equipment. The window was simply open as real sunlight filtered in. Kal’s green skin was warmed and looked closer to its previous radiance.

Lex quietly walked to the chair beside the patient bed and sat down.

Kal’s eyes fluttered open as he detected the presence of this husband’s mind. There was worry and tension. There were also… jagged fragments of memories that did not belong to his Lex.

“Lex… the man who had planned that attack… I had to act… the signal watch was the only option to inform you.” Kal coughed weakly as he reached for his beloved. “Had we been together...”

Lex held onto that outstretched green hand. “You did what you could... That man shouldn’t be even called a man… he doesn’t deserve the mantle of Martian either.”

“That creature of doom… I could feel in his thoughts, that monster …it had a mind like yours. The plan was nearly flawless.” Kal caught Lex’s eyes and sent reassuring thoughts as he said the words.

Lex could feel the bile in this throat. He had feared that was true. That the predator of a Luthor and that doomed Luthor had been in league with each other.

“Kal. It’s alright. We’ll review the battle data later.” Lex mentally berated himself. Distracting himself with work again, with being efficient, effective. Kal had changed him, made him interested in poetry, gifts, and gestures. The Martian man made him believe in being vulnerable, in being strong, and being in _love_.

He had nearly lost Kal to that broken mirror of a man who believed in none of it.

“Sorry. We’ll work later. Recover first.” Lex pressed a kiss to Kal’s lips.

Kal spoke after that lingering kiss. “No, you’re right, Lex. It’s because of your contingency plans that we aren’t worse off.”

Lex fluttered his eyes closed for a moment before opening them again. “Kal... can you pray with me?” Lex didn’t want to and didn’t need to do it alone.

“Of course, my love.” Kal gave Lex an understanding look. The intruders from the Multiverse had included mental attacks along with the physical attacks. “Together, let us take the bad memories from our minds. The painful ones, the regretful ones, ...even the false ones.”

“Let’s give them to the ground again. Even here, we can cleanse and move forward.” Lex adjusted himself on the seat as he continued to hold Kal’s hand in his own.

“ _Sh’anne...Sh’anne..._ ” Kal began with the Martian chant and Lex followed after him.

Tears that Lex had held back as fear and adrenaline had gripped him fell steadily. He let the tears wash away those memories of a different world.

They released their hands and were silent for a moment as Lex wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.

“When I’m better, I’ll make coffee for you...” Kal was wiping at some stray wetness that remained on Lex’s face even with the tubes attached to his arm.

Lex took his husband’s hand and gently set it back down on the bed cover. He traced Kryptonian sigils of healing and blessings with his thumb atop Kal’s hand-pulse.

“I’m making that hot bean juice as your husband and not as your substitute butler, mind you.” Kal added.

Lex laughed out loud for the first time since their Earth had been invaded by a small army of his alternate selves.

Kal smiled and held his gaze with red eyes he knew would shine brightly again.

Lex looked to the golden headband he had gifted Kal that was on the table. He reminded himself to send prayers and deep thanks to Rao.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A gift fic for my friend, Ren. I’ve loved Clex a long time but I thought my feelings were now more dormant. Turns out not at all. I used to beta read a lot of Clex fic for friends but I never thought to write my own or had the confidence to until now.
> 
> Earth-32 Clex is totally married but I loved stabbing into heart of Apex Lex and Prime Earth’s Rebirth Clex. 
> 
> Clex is the only “World’s Finest” I ship. Earth-32 (and Earth-167) are valid in my book.


End file.
